There has been an on-going discussion surrounding the fatigue of NRL players throughout the season, particularly those who happen to play representative football. Even more lately than of past, people are questioning and asking for a solution and for some reason no one can come up with an easy solution that leaves everyone more happy than angry. Now, my father and I often find ourselves at games cheering in the blue and gold army for Parramatta and you could definitely say we are very passionate fans of the sport as a whole and want the best for everyone involved. More than often we end up sitting at home watching different games or NRL shows on Channel Nine of Fox Sports. With our passionate personalities we always get into rowdy discussions over issues within the game and sometimes we agree and sometimes we don't but with this issue we are absolute advocates for this solution: stand alone State of Origin weekends.
Now I am very aware that this isn't a new suggestion for the NRL at all but I do question how often it has been put into writing and spread around.
At the moment, the NRL handles each season with 26 rounds. Within that however of course, each team gets their 2 byes so that brings it down to 24 playing games. As well as this though, there is always the rep round with the games such as the Aus/NZ game and City/Country so considering the majority of players don't actually play that round that brings us to 23 playing games. If the NRL chose to make the State of Origin games played on stand alone weekends we would have the majority of players only playing 20 total games. Now hear me out NRL fans, I've tallied up 3 major reasons why I believe that this is the best option for coaches, players and ultimately fans.
1. LESS PLAYER FATIGUE
This is an obvious one. In one season most players won't play the full total of 24 games but in a hypothetical situation where we do have a player who does play all of their team's games as well as representing their country and state then I can totally understand an issue of player fatigue. You can't blame them for being absolutely exhausted after that. If we made the State of Origin rounds stand alone weekends then there is no possibility of a player backing up after say 2 days and putting their body on the line and risking an injury or the inability of playing to their full potential. If the player is selected for something like State of Origin then it's no surprise to anyone that they're very good and instrumental in their team's success so why wouldn't you want to see them rested up after a war like State of Origin without sacrificing seeing your team play without them just for them to get that rest.
There have been far too many examples of players being forced to sit out of their team's matches after State of Origin due to fatigue and it's just not fair on the player, the rest of the team and the fans. Jarryd Hayne 2014 anyone?
Ultimately, yes, it is the players decision to represent their state but you can't punish the player for wanting to be involved in that sort of opportunity. The NRL promotes the State of Origin as one of the greatest challenges a player can participate in and there are many many players who dream of pulling on the blue or maroon jerseys. There aren't actually too many players who choose to not represent so those who do shouldn't have to feel forced to play only days after that and risking serious injuries. I genuinely question, if players didn't have that short back up after Origin would there be less injuries to those players?
And now, never mind those players who actually do represent, for those players who don't they get a week off which is an opportunity to rest any injuries they have been carrying and rest their bodies. Sounds like a lot less fatigue to me...
2. PARTY AFTER ORIGIN
Now this one is a focus purely on the fans. The game wouldn't be what it is without the fans and it has been proved year after year that the fans love State of Origin. With that said however, every single time Origin roles around you hear of people wishing they could call in sick Thursday morning because they want to celebrate their teams win or "mourn" the loss. If State of Origin took place on a Saturday night this would lower this complaint greatly. I do understand that of course there are people who work weekends but we have to go with majority here. Considering the fact that football will always be played on Saturday nights throughout the whole season, I think we know that it is a good day for the game to be enjoyed.
The crowd attendance of Monday night football games over the last couple of years has also shown that people prefer weekend footy. Now I know that Origin is very different so an exception would be made but I still believe we would receive greater ratings and attendance if we had State of Origin on the weekends.
If the NRL continues to have kick-off moving later and later into the evening they need to find a solution for fans dealing with early morning work or education responsibilities the next day. Either bring kick-off earlier (which would of course only annoy people rushing to make it home) or move the game to a weekend.
3. MORE ANTICIPATION
As someone who genuinely loves the game as a whole rather than just my team, I openly admit that I do not watch every single game in a round. I feel like I'm definitely not alone with this though. As fans, we are absolutely spoiled with the amount of football presented to us in a season. As we head towards game 3 of the 2015 State of Origin series we will have Monday night football from the previous round on the 6th, then Origin on Wednesday the 8th and then straight into the next round of football on Friday the 10th which continues until Monday the 13th. That is a crazy amount of football and only 2 days in a week without football. I find myself not necessarily loosing interest in the game but I am loosing any form of anticipation for football. If people are holding on to their anticipation for the next game of footy to roll around, ratings will go up and the football will be generally enjoyed more.
Let me ask you fans, when your team has the bye don't you enjoy the next time your team does play more because you were forced to wait and the anticipation was greater?
Not that I kept it necessarily brief, but that's my say in the matter, let me know what you all think.
Victoria Garry
